ok so my brother in law got me interested in ham radio and i decided i want to get my technician license but honestly looking at all the study material online is kind of overwhelming. there's like the ARRL handbook, hamstudy.org, some youtube stuff, gordon west books... i dont know which one is actually worth using or if i need all of them or what. i've heard the question pool is public which is cool but i'm not sure how to actually USE that effectively, like do people just memorize all 400 something questions or is there actual understanding involved? i work full time so i don't have a ton of hours to throw at this, probably a few weeks of spare time studying. just wondering what actually worked for people here

hamstudy.org is honestly all you need if youre short on time. i did my tech in like two weeks just doing flashcards on there during lunch breaks. the site tracks which questions you're getting wrong and keeps drilling those which is really helpful. the question pool for tech isnt that bad, a lot of it is just basic electrical stuff and some rules/regulations, and some of it you'll just pick up naturally as you read. i wouldnt stress too much about understanding every single thing deeply for the test, some of the electronics questions you kind of just pattern match your way through, the real learning happens after you get on the air anyway. gordon west books are fine if you like having something physical to read through but i personally found the flashcard approach way faster

Yeah the pool thing throws a lot of people off. The actual exam is 35 questions pulled from that pool so technically if you know all ~400 questions you're guaranteed to pass, but like the previous person said hamstudy does a good job of making that feel less tedious than just reading a PDF. One thing I'd add is dont completely ignore the why behind some of the answers, especially the safety stuff like RF exposure and electrical safety, that knowledge actually matters when you start putting up antennas and messing with equipment. The pure memorization approach works for passing the test but you'll feel a bit lost your first few times on the radio if nothing clicked conceptually. That said the test itself is pretty doable, i passed first try with maybe 10 days of casual studying, dont let the list of topics intimidate you.